Somali journalist freed, two foreign reporters still hostage

New York, January 16,
2009--CPJ welcomes the release of a freelance Somali photojournalist and two
Somali drivers on Thursday but remains deeply concerned for the fate of two
foreign freelance reporters who have been held since their abduction on August 23, 2008, by
unknown gunmen.

Photojournalist Abdifatah Elmi was working as a fixer and
translator for Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer
Nigel Brennan when they were kidnapped with their drivers while on their way to
visit Elasharefugee camp in Afgoye,
roughly 12 miles (20 kilometers) outside of the capital, Mogadishu. Local journalists told CPJ that
one of the drivers is Mahad Isse and the other is known as
"Marwali."

"We are extremely relieved to hear Abdifatah Elmi and the two
drivers were released after nearly 150 days in captivity," said CPJ's Africa program coordinator, Tom Rhodes. "But we remain
gravely concerned about Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan."

According to Elmi's relatives, he was released at around 6
p.m. in Bakara market with Isse and Marwali. Both Elmi and his relatives said
they had nearly given up hope a month ago. "He [Elmi] had this big grin on his
face with a long beard--he looked like he had just come out of the jungle," one
relative told CPJ. Despite 146 days in captivity, Elmi was in decent physical
condition, relatives added.

Elmi was kept in a room in a separate location from the two
foreign journalists and had no knowledge where they are being held, relatives
and local journalists said. Elmi and the two drivers were blindfolded when they
were abducted and released, and could not identify the kidnappers or where they
had been held, according to Agence France-Presse.

Two kidnapped foreign journalists were released
earlier this month near the port town of Bossasso
in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, CPJ reported. British correspondent
for London's Sunday
Telegraph, Colin Freeman, and Jose Cendon, a Spanish freelance
photojournalist, were released January 4 after four weeks in captivity.